The development of the language can traced to approximately the 12th century ce. Gujarati inflection is fairly complex, marking three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), two numbers (singular and plural), and three cases (nominative, oblique, and agentive-locative) for nouns. It is usually written with a cursive form of Devanagari script.

Differences in religion, caste, ethnicity, profession, and education overlap with regional distinctions to create a complex system of language varieties in which sharp dialect boundaries cannot be drawn. Linguists have discerned two general pairs of dialect groups, however. The first is based on differing phonology: some groups use a “tight” phonation, spoken with a raised larynx; others use a “murmured” phonation, spoken with the intermittent lowering of the larynx. The second dialect pair is based on ethnicity, as there are recognizable distinctions between speakers who are Parsi and those who are Bohra.